Word: modernly
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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During and after the World War, Mr. Walter Runciman, as he was then, served under various Prime Ministers in such capacities as President of the Board of Trade, combined the Liberal fervor of a Gladstone with tireless practical energy, plus a modern grasp of economics. In 1930, when enormous shipping interests headed by the late Lord Kylsant and including the Royal Mail, faced scandal and collapse, Mr. Runciman stepped in to help unsnarl British shipping chaos by rapid, efficient reorganization...
...book gives no comfort to conservatives. At Lenin's insistence she became first secretary of the Third International. But intrigues, double-dealing - principally by Zinoviev - and unscrupulous measures taken to discredit opponents soon disillusioned her. No hero-worshiper, she considers Lenin chiefly responsible for the weaknesses of the modern revolutionary movement, says she often remonstrated with him about ruthless Bolshevik tactics. Closing one eye, he would stare at her "with an expression which was more sad than sardonic" and ask, "Comrade Angelica, what use can life make of you?" like a father addressing a naive child...
...picturesque contrast with modern medicine was Hertzler's three-year course at Northwestern. Later he supplemented his education by correspondence courses and two years' study in Germany. His quaintest Americana are his adventures in kitchen surgery. Paying sick calls was no cinch. Horse & buggy covered 20 miles in half a day, while "Pop" shot rabbits and fence posts, read, slept, fought blizzards and dogs that were as bad as the roads. As standard instruments he carried a six-shooter for the dogs, wire cutter, shovel and hammer to cut through fences when he got lost in blizzards...
...into feeling as confident as he did, sometimes had them offering to sharpen his tools. When one kitchen was too small, he set up his plank-&-barrel operating table under an apple tree. But despite these primitive conditions, says Hertzler, post-operative infections were not more frequent than in modern hospitals. The secret of successful operations, says Hertzler, is not a fancy operating room but thorough knowledge of anatomy and speed. In his own clinic, built with many a headache, he dispensed with masks. According to "Pop," they only make the operating room look like a harem, give esthetic delight...
Hankering after the good old days, but grateful for modern medical advancement, Hertzler's main grievances are against neurotic female patients, most assistant surgeons, meddling parsons, quacks, lawyers (malpractice suits "are dependent on the presence of a lawyer in a state of malnutrition"), believers in mental healing. During a tumor operation, when a patient's friend stood by repeating "You think you see something, but there is nothing there," "Pop" held himself in till he finished, then slammed the gory ten-pound tumor on her feet...